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Republicans take their shots at aggressive debate
Eight Republican presidential candidates answered questions submitted by YouTube users on topics such as immigration and the economy.
PINELLAS COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- Eight Republican presidential candidates went head-to-head in St. Petersburg in a nationally televised debate Wednesday night.
The candidates were quizzed on issues such as immigration and the economy.
All of the questions came from YouTube users and were displayed on a jumbo HD screen.
The debating candidates at the Mahaffey Theater were Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, John McCain, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Tom Tancredo and Fred Thompson.
The eight candidates answered questions from the public submitted by video. More than 3,500 questions were submitted, including one by Florida Gov. Charlie Crist.
Journalists at CNN's political unit choose which videos were presented.
"The questions are funny," said Sam Feist, CNN's political director. "Some of them are striking. Some of them are sad. They are incredibly meaningful. You watch hundreds of these questions and you really get a sense of what's on people's minds."
CNN's Anderson Cooper moderated the debate.
Debate highlights
The acrimony from the Republican campaign trail carried over quickly into the debate.
Unlike previous debates in which the candidates focused most of their attacks on Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, Wednesday night's attacks were launched at each other.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney traded jabs over illegal immigration, something they have been arguing about on the trail for the past month.
Romney attacked Giuliani's record as mayor of promoting illegal immigration, and Giuliani shot back, accusing Romney of having a "sanctuary mansion" at his own home.
"In his case, there were six sanctuary cities. He did nothing about them. There was a sanctuary mansion -- at his own home, illegal immigrants were being employed," Giuliani said.
Romney denied Giuliani's allegation and the two raised their voices as they tried to talk over each other, just five weeks before the first votes will be cast in the race for the White House.
Rep. Tom Tancredo, who has anchored his candidacy on securing the borders and cracking down on illegal immigration, seemed delighted with the give and take, saying the other candidates were trying to "out-Tancredo" him.
Romney and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee fought over if, when and how the children of illegal immigrants should be educated. Huckabee said children should not be punished for the acts of their parents, while Romney insisted that would amount to illegal immigrant students getting preferential treatment.
Romney responded, "Mike, that's not your money, that's the taxpayers' money. Illegals are not going to get better breaks than our own citizens."
Sen. John McCain, freshly back from a visit to Iraq over Thanksgiving and the most hawkish of the candidates, and Rep. Ron Paul, the most anti-war of the candidates, tangled on two occasions over the Iraq war.
Asked which government programs they would cut, Paul said bringing the troops home from Iraq would save "a trillion dollars."
McCain said, "it's that kind of isolationism that caused World War II," which drew some hoots from the crowd.
Politcial resources
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